MIX CHALLENGE - MC094 October 2023 - Winners announced

[jules666]

Yea thats why i am asking what to do i dont know if its the same on every system but in win 10 here i cant put some symbols in the filenames.

Can you try leaving out the ! when exporting from DAW
.......then after uploading to your web storage (OneDrive/Google/Dropbox etc) try to rename it there with the !

[kombainera]

@Mister Fox The system is with dual language set up but at the time i was trying to make the rename keyboard was set to en( american standard ) edits/copy/paste work .I can try the 2 methods that @jules666 suggest but i notice that from the 2 posted entries 1 of them is with missing "!" so i will wait to see the Mister Fox's instructions.

[Mister Fox]

Quite honestly, this is the first time I've read of such an issue. We had plenty of Mix(ing) Challenges with "special characters" (e.g. most notably MC060 / November 2021, which actually used the European often seen ä-Umlaut). Both @BenjiRage and I did some testing behind the scenes on several Operating Systems (I am on a "just German" ones - both WIndows 7 and Windows 10 -- our Song Provider uses UK English based OS's, tried Windows 10 and MacOS). No issues there.

In fact, all characters used were within allowed filename specs.

After many hours of reading, we assume this is a rare issue linked to something seen in Office 365, or a DAW that doesn't like exporting with certain special characters (like an exclamation mark, or an apostrophe). Technically, we could go by what @jules666 was suggesting. As in, export the file with whatever name you want, then copy/paste/edit the filename template prior to uploading. Changing the filename directly on a server might result in issues, depending on what OS and filename restrictions this particular server has been set up with. But we would still be flying blind.


So to make things easy for everyone:

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	IMPORTANT INFORMATION: As of 07-OCT-2023 23:50 UTC+2/CEST, the filename template has been changed to something that should work on any Operating System (no matter the language setting) and any DAW. Please use the following Filename Template: Filename Template: MC094__Pray_For_Hayden__Dont_Panic__ForumUsername.wav The Multitrack Mix Pack has been updated accordingly. Only the TXT files got adjusted. Those of you that already downloaded the pack, you can just re-download the updated TXT files instead.

Post #001 and post #002 have been sufficiently updated. A newsletter will be sent out tonight through the PM system (I still didn't manage to get the other engine working - time constraints and technical issues!). I will also reach out to the two participants that have submitted entries so far, and allow them to edit their filenames without reuploading (yes... Google Drive and Dropbox allow that!).

Everyone else -- from this point forward, only use the upper mentioned Filename Template. Please keep the Rule Book for participants in mind. Please pay attention to detail. If you don't, you risk your entry from being disqualified.

This should solve the issue.




And finally...

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your mix.

So far, we have 02 entries.

[_StillBorn]

Heres my mix

Tried to get that inyourface presence on the vocals.

Trouble for me on this was the bass, kick and some of the guitars. Theres so much going on in the mix - tried making room for everything but it was hard some places.

Used some amps for color on some of the guitars but tried to keep it true to the sound.

If anyone want to know anything in detail let me know and i'll post screenshots or whatever.

[kombainera]

Here is my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SeymAz ... sp=sharing

Thanks @Mister Fox and @BenjiRage for the chance to see what is to be in Cla shoes this month . Very well produced and recorded song not to mention how great is the original mix.My mix is in the box only. I will describe briefly what i did and why if some one need more details i can give them at any time.

kick -eq ,1176 comp,saturation on the lows
Snr -eq ,LA2A style comp but with faster att than normal,2x eq,saturation,tranz shaper,hard cliper
overheads -eq,comp
toms-comp,saturation on lows and his
room - nothing
drum mix bus- little buss comp ,new york comp,2x revurbs on sends with eq before

bass buss-multiband comp,paralel comp with the kick,saturation on lows cose at the end my mix lack low end a lot .

guitars- channel strip style eq but different on every pair to try to make them to stay better in the mix.
guitars buss -tube limiter -0.5 to 1 db gain red.

synths -eq and paralel comp with the kick on the low synth

main vox- on hand gain control on every phrase to make them more even and some "S"es,1176 style comp,eq,little limiting
3 sends with eq before ,short ,long vurbs and short delay

back voxes- eq,little comp,limiting and sends to the revurbs


At that point my mix was sounding ok but with very thin vocal and guitars and i try a lot of stuff to make the guitars to pop like in the CLA mix and to add worm to the vocal after trying 3-4 comps + axx waves plugin and some saturators
i end up with mid/side eq on the master bus + a lot of drive from a plugin + a bit more but tape+multiband comp .

[Dodgingrain]

Mix: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrlYFkvB3 ... Q?e=29RynU

Notes:
Drums: Tried to eq the drum to make it more like a rock drum and added automation on the eq to try and even out the kick over time.
OH: lots of low end eq cut
Snare: some eq cuts and tried to add more crack.

Bass: cut some low end to fit better with the kick, bass ducks when kick hits, added some dynamic eq on the high end of the bass amp track to try and control it, otherwise standard eq and compression moves.

Synths: cut lots of the low end

Guitars: Lots of eq cuts and boosts across the different guitar parts to try and get them to fit together and not stomp on each other. Most guitars are panned L/R. Cut low end from the guitars to make room for the bass.

Vocals:
Lots of compression and eq. Some automation to control ss'es in a few spots that were troublesome. BGV's have a fair amount of compression to keep them in line. Both lead and BGV's have parallel compression. Instrumentals are ducked slightly using trackspacer to make sure there is space especially in regards to the guitars. Little bit of soothe to tame some vocal harshness and made up for that with a bit of boost from a Mag4.

2 bus processing is through tape saturation and api compressor for glue.

[White Punk OD]

FYI - I remember an issue with a character in a file name.
The exotic character was illegal for many programs and even parts of the operating system.
On the screen it looked normal (can't remember if ! or ß or ö,...) but it was actually some multi-byte code.
I had to paste it into a dumb ascii editor, there I saw the multibyte, and there I typed the correct character over it.
Then I copied it back.

[Mister Fox]

I will try to prevent this in the future...

...if there is a future for the Mix(ing) Challenge.

[MFTWC]

Everything mixed in cubase 12.

I started the mix by organizing the tracks by sending them to different busses.

I used six different busses: Drums, Bass, Guitars, Vocals, Background vocals and Synths.

I started with the drums by hipassing out frequencies that where not necessary, then I sat the volume and pan. On the buss I added some light buss compression with a 2500. the oxford inflator where used to fill out the sound, a little eq cut at 196 hz tame the drum sound.

The bass where cut in two at 293.66 hz, I used the DI as the low and the Amp as the high.
The la-2a where used with both tracks. The DI got sidechained by the Kick_01 track, I also used the barricade 4 limiter to even out the bass. On the buss it got compressed by the la-3a.

Guitars: I eq'ed out some 220, 440 and 880 hz on different tracks and on the buss to fit the vocals, every track got a limiter plugin on it, on the buss they got compressed by the la-3a.

Vocals: I used a dynamic eq to tame some 4k, the klanghelm sdrr2 for fullness and a 670 for compression.

Background Vocals: Every track got an la-2a on it, on the buss I used the oxford inflator and some limiting.

Synths: The synth tracks where used to compliment the guitars, I hat to roll of a lot of low-end. On the buss I cut some at 2349 hz.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RVwqOz ... sp=sharing

[scottfitz]

Hi all,
Thanks to BenjiRage for providing this material, it's been a lot of fun! Thanks as usual to Mister Fox for hosting so well.

Here's the link for my entry, I hope you enjoy listening
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Lps9p ... sp=sharing

General Notes
I remember a point clearly in my life when it was something like this 'don't panic' moment when all the big choices are being made and it seemed everyone apart from myself knew what they were doing Also back then I was listening to some Green Day and am generally a fan of aggressive music. However I didn't know where to start with this one as I haven't mixed in this genre before. With that in mind I paid close attention to the Demo Mix which I gained a lot of respect for by the end.
The main issue seems to be that when you have 5 layered guitars and 2 synths all which need to be pushed with added distortion, it's hard to hear any drums through it, let alone anything else. I must have gone through every compressor I have and some more than once, trying to find something that would punch through on a parallel drum channel. In the end I used the Big Clipper (Boz Digital Labs) which I'd barely used before, it was desperation more than anything I pushed these drums so ridiculously hard so I'll cover the plugins for the drums below.
I know that the mix is some way from perfect, but I've run out of time right now, so many other things to get to sadly.

Drums
Firstly I used Auto Align which did appear to make some corrections.

kick
-----
HPF @30Hz
Bell +6dB @77Hz
Bell -6.7dB @160Hz
Bell -6.3dB @350Hz
Bell +6dB @7kHz
LPF @20kHz

NI transient master, with the attack up to MAXIMUM
Mike-E CompSat set to 4:1 ratio, 100ms attack, 50ms release doing 2dB GR

snare
-------
HPF @44Hz
Bell +6dB @130Hz
Notch -8dB @280Hz
Notch -10dB @500Hz
Shelf +5dB @1.8kHz

again NI transient master with attack to MAXIMUM
Black Box HG-2 preset "Snaretacular"

Rack + Floor toms
----------------------
transient master 34% attack
Mike-E CompSat

OH
----
HPF @120Hz
Bell -3dB @630Hz

Room
-------
HPF 65Hz
Bell -3dB @500Hz
Kramer PIE compression ratio set to limit, decay time 100ms, doing 5dB DR

Cymbals
----------
HPF @500Hz

Buss
------
These drums then grouped with Bass and sent to Mike-E CompSat, set to attack 20ms, decay 100ms, ratio 4:1 85% wet.
then small boosts at 70Hz,440Hz and 15kHz. Finally Black Box HG-2

Parallel channel
--------------------

Big Clipper, push +33.5dB, pull -9.7, attack 6.4ms, release 5.8ms
HPF@20Hz
Spiff set to preset "restore transients on distorted drums", depth adjusted to 3.7


Any more notes needed, please let me know.
Good luck to all!